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Pottery firm job losses due to 'difficult market'

Simon Humphreys
BBC Radio Stoke
Google A large red brick factory stands at the back of a large car park. There is a large sign to the right of the building which reads Portmeirion Group.Google
Portmeirion has not confirmed the number of redundancies, but the GMB union has claimed it is 18

A pottery firm has announced it is making a number of redundancies at its Stoke-on-Trent site.

Portmeirion has not confirmed the number of workers affected, but the GMB Union said there were 18 potential job losses.

The company said it had to make some redundancies within its manufacturing team "amid a backdrop of difficult market conditions over recent months".

It comes days after pottery firm Royal Stafford in Burslem fell into liquidation with the loss of 83 jobs.

The "small number" of affected workers at Portmeirion's London Road site had been informed, and the company was "working hard" to make sure they were supported, it stated.

Pottery firm Portmeirion announce job losses

Samantha Warburton from the GMB Union said the cost of energy and raw materials had become an issue for the firm.

Raw materials were going up in "double digits" and energy bills were "absolutely through the roof", said the union's regional organiser.

The company made redundancies among shop floor workers in 2024.

"It just seems they are having to cut their cloth a bit tighter now than they would really like to," added Ms Warburton.

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